Friday, April 11, 2008

Is Oakland Administrator Corrupt Or Incompetent?

Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 10:30 AM

Is Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly corrupt or incompetent? That's the underlying question stemming from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by the city's former controller LaRae Brown and Edgerly's reaction to it.

As the Oakland Tribunefirst reported last month, and followed today by the San Francisco Chronicle, Brown, the city of Oakland's former controller, filed suit alleging that Edgerly fired her after she complained about the city's alleged illegal accounting practices. Brown made some startling accusations. Edgerly responded to the Trib that Brown was fired for being incompetent. But then the Trib let Edgerly off the hook.

If Brown's allegations are true, then Edgerly is corrupt for firing the city's leading financial expert for whistleblowing. But if Edgerly is right that Brown was incompetent, then the city administrator must have been incompetent too, because she kept Brown on as the city's controller -- in other words, the top money manager -- for nearly three years before firing her.